Sunday, December 10, 2006

HIV awareness ad campaign


It's a clever AIDS awareness ad campaign that they are running throughout the streets of Paris at the moment. They use famous people and make them say a line that recalls their occupation, a song they sing or a TV show they appear on. On this poster, for example, the French singer Johnny Hallyday says "Would you still like my face if I were HIV+?" which recalls one of his most famous songs. You can see the complete campaign on this little video.

42 comments:

  1. I tought you would have made a post about the telethon. The telethon is a French operation (TV shows, meetings etc ...) which consists in collecting money to finance medical researches about orphan (rare) diseases.

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  2. Yes Matthieu you're right, I wanted to but did not find the occasion yet (it still continues the whole weekend though doesn't it?)

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  3. Well, I applaud Johnny for taking part in this worthy campaign, but I question his sanity for attracting attention to his recently lifted face. He's barely recognizable...

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  4. putain ca lui change sa prestation d'optic 2000, mais bon il est temps que cela change, j'ai perdue suffisament de potos de mon entourage pour que cette merde continue d'exister, basta...

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  5. :))
    very good ad for aids.
    and in China, lots of people in the entertainment fields joined in the aids awareness ad compaign too.
    :))

    jing

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  6. As you can imagine, the efforts towards awareness, fundraising, etc., are ongoing in San Francisco.

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  7. I like the little video Eric. I'll have to see if I can name all of the people in it so it could be helpful for your readers to know who is who. I'm not sure I know who they all are anyway!

    Terra-Vecchia was referring to Johnny's involvement in the ads for Optic 2000 - a French eyewear company that uses Johnny's face for promoting eye glasses. You can see him in the ads here.

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  8. Well, here's my best shot at naming the people in the video Eric has provided. I've done my best, but feel free to make any corrections. I have to say, I have no idea who the sports figure is! Maybe someone can do the translations of the ads themselves.


    Laurent Ruquier - Talk show host of On a Tout Essayé (We've Tried Everything) shown on France 2 each day.

    Sébastien Cauet - Radio & television personality, as well as the talk show host of La Méthode Cauet shown on Thursdays on TF1.

    Claire Chazal - Anchorwoman of the French national news show 20 Heures and also co-host of gay television station Pink TV's show Face à Pink along with Frédéric Mitterrand (yes, the nephew of the former French president François Mitterrand!).

    Jean-Pierre Foucault - Host of the show Qui Veut Gagner des Millions? (Who Wants to be a Millionaire?).

    Muriel Robin - Comic.

    Singer/Actor Johnny Hallyday.

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  9. To be honest, i don't particularly like his face anyway - is he known for his 'good looks' then, as i don't see them? lol.
    Anyway i digress from the very important issue and don't mean to make light of it. I think this is a great campaign and hope it gets the message across, it seems a good idea. In answer to the question, it wouldn't make any difference to me at all and don't understand why there is such a stigma for sufferers of this terrible disease. It's a disease like any other which needs awareness, acceptance, research, treatment and compassion.

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  10. Michael, the reindeers have transported Santa to my blog, especially for you!

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  11. Hope your shopping was fun (and that you took your camera along).

    I like the way your bordered this photo evenly all around. Very effective use of common elements to surround the poster.

    In one year alone in the late 80s, 6 of my co-workers passed away with horrible illnesses due to AIDS. The death rate has slowed substancialy in North America and Europe with medications developed since those early days. The horrors of the global scale of the epidemic continue unabated, though, and to be compounded by the greed that keeps available treatment from the poor, and the ignorance and prejudice that prevents health education that would spare people from becoming infected. I hope this awareness campaign hits its target in France. I think every day of the tens of thousands of AIDS orphans in Africa, and how this did not have to be.
    -Kim

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  12. The campaign is a good idea, since many don't know anyone who is HIV-infected, and so distance themselves from it. We should all picture ourselves in the photo. What would I face socially if I was HIV-positive?

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  13. Pictures of the AIDS awareness campaign of different countries would be curious to see. One of the places we visited we weren't aware that it was an AIDS awareness campaign because we couldn't read it. The sign was a sunset with a dolphin jumping. We later learned that the dolphin symbol was the country's condom supplier and the slogan on the sign encouraged partners to have protected sex. We thought it was a sign advertising vacations at the country's coastal resorts.

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  14. France has some of the coolest HIV/AIDS public awareness campaigns. The videos are shown/listed frequently on YouTube.

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  15. I recently saw a bio of Line Renaud on TV5. I just "met" her less than a year ago in some excelent movies she has made recently. She is 78. I found out many things about her:

    She is very active in the Aids fight. Similar to Elizabeth Taylor.

    She was a top French star for many years in Las Vegas and Cafe de Paris. A really big star.

    She had a fabulous figure, could dance and sing.

    I bought two of her cd's from Amazon as well as several of her movies on Amazon.Fr.

    Her efforts have been acknowleded by many famous charities, etc.

    She deserves many thanks from the Sida population.

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  16. So what do you think Eric? The subject? Sunday? People Christmas shopping? It's kind of quiet in here today...

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  17. I'm here! While everyone's out, shall we just play with the toys in our stockings?

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  18. Maybe all of the above, Michael. The subject matter is a very difficult one, that much is for sure, even here in SF.

    There was an excellent movie made in France a few years ago called "Les Nuits Fauves" (or "Savage Nights" in English)

    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105032/

    and

    http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/movie.html?v_id=131131

    I personally thought it was brilliantly made but it's also a very emotionally intense movie, a little bit "in your face", and probably not for everybody. You might want to check out a couple of reviews first before renting it and definitely keep a glass of wine handy while viewing.

    Lynn: I'd love to stay and play but the sun just broke out, here, better run and enjoy it while we can.

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  19. I think the subject is hard to deal with. Not only AIDS but illness in general. I think the ad campaign is a good one so it deserved to be shown but I do understand that people don't feel like saying anything about it.

    BTW Michael thanks for linking to all the ads. I was too lazy to do it!

    Let's start a brand new week!

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  20. Eric,

    That's not why I didn't say anything about it. Personally, I don't think it's hard at all to talk about it unless you know someone personally afflicted...which is probably rare for most of us. I think we all feel the same way about AIDS and we would all just be repeating the same things.

    For me, I just don't who this guy is so I had nothing to say really.

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  21. Here you go, Susan:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Hallyday

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  22. We need something like this here in the U.S. It would most certainly help.

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  23. Susan, it's quite funny to hear someone outside of France say they don't know who Johnny Hallyday is. He's like the Elvis Presley of France so it's hard for people here to understand why he's not well known outside of France.

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  24. I'm glad you pointed that out Michael. I have no idea who he is, but according to what you wrote, he is pretty popular there. I'll have to go back and check out the links you left.

    As for AIDS, Susan in Atlanta said, "Personally, I don't think it's hard at all to talk about it unless you know someone personally afflicted...which is probably rare for most of us."

    HOW DO YOU KNOW YOU DON'T KNOW ANYBODY AFFLICTED????

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  25. Meta.... What Susan said is quite true. Read it again. It IS rare for for most of us to know of someone afflicted. How would we know? It's not something people go around saying. Susan wasn't saying she assumes not many people we mix with are afflicted, it's whether we KNOW they are. Probably not.

    Yes, Michael i appreciated all those links too.

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  26. Why so hostile Meta? All caps...and bold?

    I was just explaining to Eric that "difficulty discussing this matter" was probably not the reason there were so few comments. I was saying that it might be difficult to discuss if you were close with someone afflicted but most of us probably don't have a family member or close friend that is afflicted since less than a half of 1 percent of the population in the U.S. (and similar for most countries except a few) is afflicted. Math: 900,000/300,000,000=.003. The odds of having a close relationship with someone afflicted is low. Therefore, that's probably not why there were so few comments. More likely, it's probably because few people know who that singer is.

    If you want some comments, here's mine:

    Prevention, prevention, prevention...needs to be focused on. Especially in Africa. Right now, the church and mosque is squelching educating the African public about prevention and condom use. A travesty. Another example of religion endangering people.

    How's that for a comment?

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  27. "are" squelching....not "is"...sorry for the bad grammar. Originally, I wrote only the church is....but remembered to add "mosque" as they are also censoring info to Africans. Actually, not JUST censoring, but giving DISINFORMATION.

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  28. Susan, Totally agree about prevention and the church/religion endangering people. Most wars stem from religion, now we have a reluctance to prevent this disease because of religious belief.

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  29. Great campaign, I wish than ran more like these here in the US. Nice photo too.

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  30. Great minds think alike Lynn!

    Randy, Not sure what you're talking about. There's lots of public service announcements (PSA) in the U.S. Here's a recent one in fact...the NBA and UNICEF: NBA TV Campaign. Even more important, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta has had a huge media campaign since 1987 where the media time donated by national and local media amounts to $65 million in air time. The CDC's campaign amounts to roughly 47% of AIDs air-time campaigns (meaning that there has been $138 Million worth of on-air media time donated to AIDS by all sources 65/.47=138) Monitoring CDC's AIDS Campaign.

    I know that I have seen lots of TV campaigns featuring celebrities over the last twenty years.

    Well, Eric...you got your wish....more comments! LOL By the way, I sent you an email....

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  31. Sorry Susan, I just got back to your comments and didn't mean to "yell". I was just sending a message. I think I get what you were trying to say...I just don't like people to think that because you might not be able to tell someone has HIV that they do not. Again I'm sorry if I came across mad...I wasn't.

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  32. By the way, I didn't say anything earlier but I had the same knee-jerk reaction as Metaphysical upon reading "Personally, I don't think it's hard at all to talk about it unless you know someone personally afflicted...which is probably rare for most of us"

    Then, the explanation you guys (Lynn and Susan) provided made sense, but without it, these words could be interpreted ahem... shall we say .. very differently.

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  33. Thank you tomate...I feel much better now :-)

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  34. No problem mama. Tomate, I'm curious, what different way?

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  35. Ironically, the only statement I made that should be taken offensively was the one about religion but no one has said anything about it. Talk about a controversial topic! Now that is one!

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  36. No problem mama. Tomate, I'm curious, what different way

    I better not, Susan. Let's stay on the positive note :)

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  37. Male circumcision reduces HIV risk
    Wed Dec 13, 2006 7:53 PM GMT
    By Will Dunham

    WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Male circumcision halved a man's risk of being infected by the virus that causes AIDS in heterosexual intercourse, according to results of two large clinical trials in Kenya and Uganda announced on Wednesday.

    Public health leaders hailed the results as pointing to a potentially powerful way to reduce HIV infections in Africa, the continent hardest hit by AIDS.

    "It does have the potential to prevent many tens of thousands, many hundreds of thousands and perhaps millions of infections over coming years," Dr. Kevin De Cock, director of the World Health Organisation's Department of HIV/AIDS, told reporters.

    The U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced an early end to the two clinical trials after an interim review of the results showed that medically performed circumcisions had a great impact in cutting the HIV infection risk.

    A study in Kisumu, Kenya, involving 2,784 men showed a 53 percent reduction of HIV infections in circumcised men compared to uncircumcised men. A parallel study involving 4,996 men in Rakai, Uganda, put the reduction at 48 percent in circumcised men compared to uncircumcised men.

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  38. Thanks for this, Eric. That's really useful. I am conducting a review of HIV awareness campaigns across Europe at the moment so that's useful background. Thank you!

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  39. A very nice informational blog.Keep on making such important blog post.Your work is really being appreciated by some one.

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